recommended

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

That's how you supposedly pronounce Cheyenne. Wanted man Dennis Morgan (Jim) is given a second chance by lawman Barton MacLane (Yancey) if Morgan heads to Shy-Anne and leads him to "The Poet" who is robbing stagecoaches. This poet is even upsetting the local bad gang headed up by Arthur Kennedy (Sundance). Every time Sundance pulls a robbery, "The Poet" has beaten him to it and left him a poem in the treasure trunk. Every time. Ha ha. That's pretty cheeky. Anyway, Kennedy wants to team up with this guy and carry out some big hold-ups. Morgan has to find and capture the poet and gets involved with a couple of ladies on the way – Jane Wyman (Ann) and Janis Paige (Emily). You know these two ladies are going to figure in the story just a little more than on that initial stagecoach ride into Shy-Anne….This film is entertaining and contains a great saloon song – "Going Back to Old Cheyenne" – as sung by Janis Paige. The film leads you through its journey with action, drama, comedy and various set pieces and the overall result is a good western.

Dennis Morgan is a gambler forced in exchange for his freedom to capture a notorious outlaw who calls himself "The Poet" and leaves poems on the money box. On the hotel he meets Jane Wyman and they have a tempestuous relationship from the beginning, but that is what make the film so good. Wyman has a stern face, but when she smiles she melts Morgan and the spectators. Janis Paige is the other woman who in a way is prettier than Wyman, but lacks her stern charm (in the movie), but manages to sing very well. Arthur Kennedy is Sundance, an excellent bad guy, but in a minor role. Some very good scenes of the outlaws in numerous horses chasing the stagecoach, might even be stock footage. Very well built screenplay, will leave no one bored. Raoul Walsh directs and delivers a good western, that should be more known, but perhaps because of its title, got lost in time and in the the number of westerns that used the same name.

Dennis Morgan stars as Jim Wylie, gentleman gambler and fast gun in Cheyenne which by the look of it was a project originally intended by Warner Brothers for Errol Flynn. It has a lot more plot than most westerns of the day did. With Raoul Walsh directing and a score by Max Steiner it bares no small resemblance to the classic Flynn movie San Antonio which these gentlemen worked on as well.Morgan got himself into a bit of a shooting scrape in Carson City and the law wants him there. But Wells Fargo detective Barton MacLane offers him a proposition, if he'll go undercover and smoke out a bandit known as 'the poet'. They'll square things with the law for Morgan if he helps out. Since that's the best offer he's had all day, he takes it.His detective work takes him to Cheyenne where the poet is not only robbing Wells Fargo, but he's also taking trade away from other honest robbers like Arthur Kennedy as The Sundance Kid and his gang. Making the journey with him to Cheyenne are a pair of women who will figure prominently in Morgan's life for a period, Jane Wyman and Janis Paige.Our poet is so named because he leaves a bit of verse at the scene of each robbery. Giving Wells Fargo the finger so to speak in rhyme.Although the poet's identity is actually revealed early on, the film takes on a Columbo like twist as Morgan and the poet try to outsmart each other. That's the real heart of Cheyenne and why it's as good a film as it is.Alan Hale, also a regular in Flynn films, is on hand as an oafish deputy sheriff, more the kind of part Andy Devine used to play. Hale does well in it though and his presence in the film convinces me even more that the film was originally intended for Errol Flynn.Cheyenne is a well plotted adult type western, still with enough action for the Saturday afternoon matinée trade. It holds up very well after 62 years. Even if Errol Flynn didn't get to star in it.

It was all said above. This is a rewarding movie to watch with good depth. I'd just like to add that the removal of Arthur Kennedy half way through the film, just as Alan Hale finally makes an entrance, is interesting. It's almost as though Raoul was having a hard time with Mr. Kennedy and had a part written to replace him with the `Skipper's' dad. The ending is a wee bit of a surprise only because just as it looks like thing may not turn out the way we expect them too, they do. Yes Mr. Walsh did make many memorable westerns (I've seen the majority of them) but it's almost as though he was trying to move into another direction with this picture. Weather audiences appreciated it or not are still to be seen.Scotty Jensen Racine, WI. USA